In the digital world, email marketing has become the most powerful way to reach and engage your customers. 

Almost every person today has an email account – whether personal or business – which makes it the perfect medium for reaching out to your target audience. 

When done correctly, email marketing can help you build trust with your customers, introduce new products or services, and drive sales. 

Unfortunately, not many businesses exploit this opportunity to its full potential because making an effective email marketing campaign to grow conversion rates is not as simple as it sounds. 

The best way to know what works and what doesn’t is by looking at examples of good campaigns vs bad ones. 

As you’ll see in this blog post, even famous brands like Dominos and McDonalds struggle with certain mistakes when it comes to email marketing.

Ensure your email service provider is compliant with GDPR

In May 2018, the European Union introduced the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which updates EU data protection laws for the 21st century. 

It strengthens the rights of individuals to control their own data and requires businesses to have strict controls on data use. 

Thus, it’s important that your email service provider (ESP) is GDPR compliant, as you will be sending emails to your customers and prospects. Many ESPs have already made the necessary changes to be compliant, but you should check with yours to make sure they have. 

If they haven’t, you can use a service like Postmark to send emails on your behalf. This way you can still have your emails sent to your customers while the ESP is being made GDPR compliant. 

Once GDPR is implemented in May, you’ll be required to have a valid consent from your contacts to send them emails.

Having a well-written marketing plan

Email marketing campaigns should follow a well-planned marketing strategy that’s been optimized for your audience based on data-driven insights. If you don’t have a marketing plan, you could be wasting your time by sending emails without any specific goals in mind. 

Don’t forget to include all your stakeholders in the planning process, so that you’re all on the same page when it comes to the direction of your email marketing strategy. 

Once you’ve established your goals and audience segments, think about how you can use emails to convert your leads into customers with mind-blowing email subjects. A good example would be a travel company that uses email marketing to drive conversions by promoting their vacation packages, discounts, and other package offerings. 

Another important factor to keep in mind when creating your email marketing plan is to adhere to the CAN-SPAM Act. 

This law sets the rules for commercial email marketing and dictates what you can and can’t do when it comes to sending emails. Your marketing plan should also include a clear call to action (CTA) and a frequency schedule tailored to your audience.

The lack of segmentation

Sometimes, you may want to send the same email to everyone on your email list. However, this is often a bad move if you don’t have a large list. 

Email marketing experts recommend that you segment your email list into smaller lists and send tailored messages to each segment. This allows you to target prospects and customers based on their interests and behaviors. 

For example, a fitness instructor can send different emails to her subscribers who are at different fitness levels. This way, she can send them messages that are relevant to their fitness level. 

Even though you want to reach as many people as possible, you should be careful not to spam your subscribers by sending irrelevant messages. This can hurt your brand and make people unsubscribe from your email list. 

Segmenting your list allows you to send relevant emails that are more likely to be opened and clicked. It’s also a good way to gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns. 

If one segment is performing better than others, you can focus on those.

Sending too many emails at once

Don’t send out emails too often, or you’ll end up annoying your subscribers. Sending too many emails too often can also have a negative impact on your brand’s reputation. 

A good rule of thumb is to send an email no more than once a week. It’s also wise to send emails at times when your audience is most likely to open them. For example, sending an email on a Friday afternoon when most people are out of the office is not a good idea. 

Instead, send your marketing emails on a Monday or Tuesday when people are more likely to be at their desks. Another thing you should avoid is sending out too many emails at once. 

This can cause your email server to be flagged as spam by your subscribers’ email providers. Limit the number of emails you send in a single day and make sure they are not too long. 

Sending emails to the wrong audience

It’s easy to make this mistake if you don’t know your audience well. If you send emails to people who aren’t interested in hearing from you, you risk getting your email account blocked or marked as spam. 

You can avoid this by segmenting your email list and sending tailored messages to each segment based on their interests and behaviors. If you use email marketing as part of your lead generation strategy, you should start collecting email addresses as soon as possible. 

You can collect emails in a variety of ways, such as adding sign-up forms on your website, purchasing email lists, and hosting an email contest. Email marketing is a great way to build relationships with your customers and prospects, increase brand awareness, and drive sales. 

However, it’s important that you follow the rules and avoid these common mistakes. This way, your email marketing campaigns are more likely to succeed.

Incorrect use of colors and font type

While it may seem like a small detail, the color and font type of your emails can play a big role in whether your messages get read or deleted. 

Avoid using too much text in your emails since customers often skim through emails quickly and only read the first few words. The best color for your emails is black text on white or blue backgrounds. 

You should also use shorter sentences and paragraphs in your emails. It’s also important to use appropriate font types for your emails. Serif fonts like Times New Roman or Georgia work best for paragraphs, whereas sans serif fonts like Helvetica or Arial are best for headlines.

Our final words

Email marketing is one of the most powerful sales channels that businesses can use to generate leads and drive conversions. However, many brands make email marketing mistakes to avoid when it comes to email marketing, which can hurt their reputations and prevent them from taking full advantage of this channel. 

The best way to avoid these mistakes is by following an effective email marketing strategy. This includes following CAN-SPAM rules, segmenting your email list, and sending tailored messages to your subscribers based on their interests and behaviors. 

Most importantly, brands should remember that email marketing is a long-term strategy. It takes time to build an effective email marketing campaign, so be patient and don't give up if your results aren't immediate.